Friday, 31 May 2013

31 May 2013—Dublin, Ireland—KERUBIM PRESS has announced the imminent release of its latest esoteric title, Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls by the Golden Dawn Community (ISBN 978-1-908705-07-5), due to launch on 14 June 2013.

The book weighs in at 440 pages, packed not
only with all 36 Flying Rolls (including rare material), but with
additional magical teachings, historical insights, and commentaries from
members of a variety of modern Golden Dawn orders, including well-known
authors like Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero, Aaron Leitch, Nick Farrell
and Peregrin Wildoak.

Anyone working with the Golden Dawn system
of magic, and, indeed, anyone working in the Western Mystery Tradition
as a whole, will find this an indispensible addition to their
bookshelves.

Check out the back cover description:

This book contains the 36 pivotal
papers given to Adepts in the original Golden Dawn order, providing key
insights and instructions into the theory and practice of magic, from
theurgy, imagination and symbolism to clairvoyance, divination and
telesmatic images. For the first time these texts are brought together
in a single printed volume, along with some rare administrative versions
that were all but ignored by modern eyes.

In addition, extensive and insightful
commentaries from modern Golden Dawn magicians from a variety of orders
are here provided, adding to the corpus of teaching provided in the
Flying Rolls themselves.

The book will retail for $29.99, £19.99,
€24.99, or AU$29.99. It will be available through all major online
bookstores, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and The Book
Depository. Bookstores are welcome to contact Kerubim Press to inquire
about wholesale options.

Monday, 13 May 2013

The Tattvas have long appeared to be the most unorthodox aspect of the Golden Dawn system, clashing quite obviously (at least on the surface) with the rest of the Order's Western-leaning teachings. The shapes and colours don't seem to fit, and it seems readily apparent to many that there are other, perhaps better, alternatives.

And here is where we need to be careful, because it is this kind of reasoning that can hold us back, can hinder us from actually learning something new. Not all is clean-cut on the esoteric path, and we are frequently forced to reconcile opposing ideas and balance seemingly contradictory thoughts.

First, let us explore the tattvas from a historical perspective. Many Golden Dawn members were also members of the early school of Theosophy when it was more Western focused. They were also exposed to Eastern teachings, some of which were mentioned in passing in various Golden Dawn documents, often as ways to help better explain Western material.

But why did the Golden Dawn use the tattvas and not other Eastern material? If it was simply an issue of them being new and intriguing, it begs the question why so many other new and intriguing ideas from across the globe were not embraced. Surely their introduction was less because of their general appeal and more because they actually fit into the system.

But how do they fit? Prithivi is a yellow square and relates to Earth. The square aspect matches Western associations, thanks to the Platonic solid of the cube, but the colour yellow would suggest, in the Golden Dawn, the element of Air. Likewise, the blue circle of Vayu would suggest Water, but is actually Air, and the black egg would suggest Earth, but is actually Spirit. Only the red triangle of Tejas appears to match other Golden Dawn associations, while the silver crescent of Apas does bring to mind the lunar connection of Water.

So then we have incongruence, and here is part of the beauty of this system within the carefully ordered material of the Golden Dawn. When these are skryed, the magician is instantly faced with, in most cases, preconceptions based on the colour and shape of the objects, which could easily provide a false vision. Yet because their real associations are often starkly different, it is generally easier to notice these illusions. For example, if the magician were to skry Prithivi and be greeted with Air-related imagery, then he or she immediately knows that the vision is not reliable. So, in a sense, the Tattvas provide an additional testing mechanism by the pure fact that they do not so easily match the correspondences Golden Dawn magicians have previously learned.

However, there is more to these than that. My personal experience suggests the Tattvas are tamer in nature than many other symbols, despite their elemental associations. They appear to cause less astral strain, and the energy involved is gentler than, for example, the four alchemical triangles that magicians in the West are more familiar with. The colours match more closely the Queen Scale, and thus work on a lower level than the King Scale colours we are perhaps more familiar with. Therefore, the Tattvas present a good introduction to the art of skrying that is less likely to result in dangerous situations for those new to the technique.

That raises the question why Mathers never advocated skrying the four elemental triangles. The Neophyte learns of these triangles, and they become an essential part of magical teaching and tradition. I agreed for many years with others who suggested these symbols were more appropriate, but I have come to learn differently over time. It was not like Mathers was not aware of them. They appear to be the most logical symbols to use, and yet he chose not to. There must be a reason for this apparent oversight.

The reason for this can be better understood when we look at the following passage in the original paper on the Hexagram Ritual:

"Remember also that the triangle if apex downward is an extremely evil and hurtful symbol and it is for this reason that these symbols of the elements [fire triangle, water triangle, air triangle, earth triangle] are not usually traced as Sigils, but are replaced with the Cherubic emblems of Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius and Taurus."

One will note that in the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram the inverted triangle is only employed in conjunction with an upright triangle, unless in very rare circumstances as a double inverted triangle for use in workings with evil forces, largely beyond the scope of the Zelator Adeptus Minor.

What this reveals, however, is that the inverted triangle, employed as the symbol of Water, is considered evil, and thus also we may consider the inverted triangle with line employed as the symbol of Earth. Thus, if we were to skry these, we would be working with evil symbols. This would go a long way to explaining the harsher energy and more straining nature I have personally experienced with these symbols. It would also explain why these familiar symbols were not employed for skrying, with the Tattvas taking their place.

It is not difficult to see why Mathers advised against using an inverted triangle. The upright triangle is, after all, one of the primary symbols of the Order and that which we aspire to, the Supernal Triad. When inverted it is similar to the pentagram, putting Kether below Chokmah and Binah, and, in effect, marking the Fall. The symbols on the altar also relate to this, for while the inverted triangle is employed, the Cross is never placed below it, for that would be the symbol of the Order entirely overturned.

Of course, the Vault walls do employ the inverted Water triangle, but note that it is balanced by the upright Fire triangle, and between them is the reconciling symbol of Air. Note also the absence of the Earth Triangle, the very emblem of that which has Fallen.

There is much in this worth careful study, but this is sufficient for understanding the place of the Tattvas in the Golden Dawn system, and why also we should look deeper into why the pieces of the system were designed in this way.

In the esoteric world we are often seen as being tied to the forces of our birth charts. Our strengths and weaknesses, our high points and low points, our ideals and aims, what drives us and holds us back, are all mapped out before us like an oracle, like the foretelling of our doom.

Indeed, it is often the case that many occultists will blame their chart for their problems, admitting a kind of fatalist thinking, where who and what we are is already decided, and cannot be deviated from.

This is, in my opinion, an unacceptable approach for a magician, and certainly for a Gnostic. An adept who blames exterior forces for his or her problems is an adept hoping to escape responsibility, and thus this shows a magical immaturity which is not congruent with adepthood.

Those who seek to escape responsibility enter a greater prison of the mind and soul, handing over the keys to their being to a force or power undeserving of them. We study astrology not merely to find out who we are and are likely to be, but so that we can redirect the forces and powers to create ourselves as we see fit, knowing that the road carved out before us is not the road we necessarily have to travel.

When we climb the Tree of Life we encounter the planets in turn. The Golden Dawn's grade structure is built upon this. The subtle suggestion is that as the Theoricus gains the secrets of Yesod, he or she gains mastery over the Moon, and is thus free from her reign. Of course, we talk of the real initiation, not merely the grade attained within an order, and this is far more likely to occur in the sub-grades of Adeptus Minor or above than in the Outer Order.

So if, from a Gnostic perspective, climbing the Tree of Life allows us to gain freedom from the Archons of the planets, what happens when, in the case of the Golden Dawn, the attainable human grades stop at 7=4? Here there is a mystery, for the only remaining of the old planets is Saturn in Binah, and Saturn is the Demiurge—Saturn is Death and the bondage of mortality.

So, in one sense, there is no escaping the Demiurge for any of us, for we must all answer the call of death, but in another, far greater sense, this is the ultimate freedom, the loosening of the shackles of mortality, knowing in our mind, heart and soul that we are undying. This is the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher's Stone, that which the alchemists of old have strived for and which the complete adept attains.

Chokmah is linked with the wheel of the Zodiac, showing that even after escaping the seven jails, there is an outer wall that must be climbed. Yet even then there is Kether and the Gilgulim, the reincarnation of the soul, which is, from one perspective, another prison, similar to the samsara of the Buddhists. One freedom is, as it were, another prison, yet ultimately it is in Kether that we experience unity, and so if in there we find the jailkeeper, in there we also find the key.

Mishkan ha-Echad

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About Me

He has written extensively on occult topics, including articles for Hidden Spirit, Hermetic Virtues, and The Gnostic. He also blogs regularly about topics related to the Golden Dawn and Gnosticism.

He has been involved with a number of magical groups, including the Order of the Sons and Daughters of Light and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and he is currently a member of the Ancient and Honourable Order of the Golden Dawn (www.ahogd.com)